A gas turbine engine generally includes a fan and a core arranged in flow communication with one another. Additionally, the core of the gas turbine engine generally includes, in serial flow order, a compressor section, a combustion section, a turbine section, and an exhaust section. In operation, air is provided from the fan to an inlet of the compressor section where one or more axial compressors progressively compress the air until it reaches the combustion section. Fuel is mixed with the compressed air and burned within the combustion section to provide combustion gases. The combustion gases are routed from the combustion section to the turbine section. The flow of combustion gases through the turbine section drives the turbine section and is then routed through the exhaust section, e.g., to atmosphere.
Combustion gas temperatures are relatively hot, such that some components in or near the combustion section and the downstream turbine section require features for deflecting or mitigating the effects of the combustion gas temperatures. More commonly, non-traditional high temperature composite materials, such as ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials, are being used in applications such as gas turbine engine combustion and turbine sections. Components fabricated from CMC materials have a higher temperature capability compared with typical components, e.g., metal components, which may allow improved component performance and/or increased system temperatures. Often, components in direct contact with the hot combustion gases may be fabricated from a CMC material, while combustor assembly support structures comprise metallic components, which are less capable of withstanding high temperatures than CMC components and have different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) than CMC components. Therefore, exposing the metallic support structure to the relatively high combustion temperatures risks overheating the metallic support structure and the CTE mismatch between the metallic and CMC components can place undue thermal stresses on CMC components mounted to the metallic support structure.
Accordingly, improved combustion assemblies for mitigating the negative effects of using CMC components with metallic hardware would be desirable. As an example, a combustor assembly having a CMC combustor dome that shields a metallic support structure from a combustion chamber of the combustor assembly would be beneficial. As another example, a combustor assembly that decouples a CMC combustor dome from a structural load path of the combustor assembly would be advantageous. Additionally, a CMC combustor dome formed from a plurality of CMC tiles, e.g., to simplify manufacturing and repair of the dome while also reducing unacceptable natural frequencies of the dome, would be desirable.